


Labor-Saving Devices

by coolbreezemage



Series: Three Words Prompts [2]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Ambiguous Route (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), M/M, Post-Timeskip | War Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:01:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25005088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coolbreezemage/pseuds/coolbreezemage
Summary: “abbey, supply, robot” - (Linhardt & Caspar, post-TS)Linhardt is too lazy to haul supplies, so he builds a machine to do it for him. Caspar is intrigued.
Relationships: Caspar von Bergliez/Linhardt von Hevring
Series: Three Words Prompts [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1810291
Comments: 3
Kudos: 17





	Labor-Saving Devices

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mayormadeleinerobin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mayormadeleinerobin/gifts).



“Linhardt, what is all this stuff here for?” Caspar’s uncomfortably loud voice broke into what had been a very pleasant nap. “You were supposed to be helping the army haul in the supplies! The Professor’s gonna be pissed if we don’t get it done in time.”

Linhardt yawned and stretched and reached for his notes to make sure they were all still there. He still didn’t completely trust that Seteth wouldn’t try to confiscate them again. Of course he had a second copy safely hidden under the floorboards in his room, but he’d rather not have to resort to that.

“That’s exactly what I’m doing,” he said, surveying the work before him. Shouldn’t it be obvious? How far had he gotten before falling asleep? The right leg was almost finished, and the main body just needed a few more weight tests to make sure it wouldn’t buckle, and after that he could adjust the hatch and feeding arms… He picked up a screwdriver. “Now, if you’ll leave me alone, I could get back to work.”

“I don’t get it.” Caspar sat on his heels next to Linhardt’s carefully-arranged spread of materials and reached for a metal bracket, turning it over in his hand as if it were some sort of mystical ancient artifact. “What does all this have to do with hauling supplies? You do that with muscle, not broken junk. Do you need my muscle? Cause I can help you out, you just need to ask!”

“Hauling all the supplies for the entire army by hand is rather inefficient, wouldn’t you agree?” Lin said without looking up from the screws attaching the mechanism’s right foot to its leg.

“...yes? It’s pretty boring. But it’s all we’ve got. And me ‘n Raph have got enough muscle between us to handle it! It’ll go even faster if we could get Catherine and Hilda to help, but then Hilda will probably make me do all her chores, and that would kinda suck.” 

Lin flexed the joint. It would need some lubrication before the test run, but otherwise it was working as expected. “Do you remember the metal puppets we fought in the Holy Tomb?” 

“Yeah! Of course I do, that was a hell of a fight. But what’s that got to do with anything?” A pause. “Wait, are you trying to build one of them? Or did you take one apart?”

“Both. I disassembled one of them once I was sure it was disabled. Whatever power animated them is unfamiliar to me and probably not something we can harness yet.” To his great regret. Someday, he vowed, he would understand it. “But the underlying structure is sound. With the proper modifications, some basic wind and fire magic would be enough to direct them.”

“Ooh, and we can make them fight on our side!” Caspar punched the air. “That’s awesome.”

Lin shook his head. “I’m not doing this for battle. I theorize that if I can build a series of automated puppets small enough to traverse the monastery grounds and sturdy enough to carry crates of supplies…”

“Then we won’t have to carry them ourselves! I like this idea, Lin!” Linhardt finally glanced up, right into Caspar’s huge grin. “You’re really clever, you know that?”

He did, but it still felt good to hear it. 

“But, uh,” Caspar went on, “we’ve still got to get the work done. It doesn’t look like this is going to be ready in time.”

“Probably not,” Linhardt agreed. “But if I could make use of some muscle…” he suggested, hoping Caspar would catch on. 

He did, and sighed. “Aw man, so you are going to make me do your work after all.” He brightened. “That’s all right! I’ll get all those supplies in as fast as I can. But you owe me now, you got that?”

“Mhmm,” Lin hummed, once again focused on installing the contents of a dish of tiny gears into one of the mechanism’s arms. 

“All right, I’ll come see you when I’m done! I’m looking forward to this puppet thing.” Caspar got to his feet and started heading towards the doors. “I’m sure it’s going to be amazing!”

Linhardt knew experiments like this failed far more often than they succeeded. But this time he couldn't help but share Caspar's hope. This one was going to work. He could feel it. And even if it wasn't reliable enough for hauling, he reasoned, it could at least make a good sparring partner for Caspar.


End file.
